The term Tory derives from the Tory Party, the ancestor of the modern UK Conservative Party. To this day it is often used as a shortened alternative for Conservative. A similar usage for Tory exists in Canada to describe the Conservative Party. It was also used during the American Revolutionary War to refer to British Loyalists in the colonies. During the American Civil War, supporters of the Confederacy extended the term to Southern Unionists.

Currently this term is considered to be derogatory by some British Conservatives since many UK voters associate it with uncomplimentary recollections of the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. However, others, such as the late Enoch Powell used the term in preference to Conservative precisely because of its supposed reactionary or die hard connotations. Others simply use it as a shorthand for Conservative Party - for instance the domain http://www.tories.org.uk points directly to the Conservative Party website.

Despite its archaic origins "Tory" is unlikely to fall from common usage, however, since newspapers find it too useful as an alternative for "Conservative" when space is limited. In Canada, the term is neutral and is a common shortening for the party name by supporters and opposition alike.

History

The term originates from the Exclusion Bill crisis of 1678–1681. The Whigs (initially an insult — whiggamore, a cattle driver) were those who supported the exclusion of James VII and II from the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland (the "Petitioners"), and the Tories (from the Irish term tóraidhe — outlaw, robber) were those who opposed it (the Abhorrers).

Discredited by its hostility and suspected disloyalty to the new Hanoverian dynasty installed in 1714, and deprived of its principal political raison d'être by the collapse of organised opposition following the abortive Jacobite uprising of 1715, Toryism in its original form faded from the political scene, inaugurating half a century of Whig supremacy.

In the late eighteenth century the label of Tory came to be applied to believers in the right of Kings to determine the direction of the state rather than to act merely in accordance with the wishes of parliament, politicians and the powerful families who largely dominated the parliamentary system in the absence of universal suffrage, secret ballots and equal constituencies.

Applied by their opponents to Parliamentary supporters of the ministries of Lord North (1770–1782) and the younger William Pitt (1783–1801), the term came to represent the political current opposed to the Whigs and the radicalism unleashed by the American and French Revolutions.

Generally, the Tories were associated with lesser gentry and the Church of England, while Whigs were more associated with trade, money, larger land holders (or "land magnates"), expansion and tolerance. Both were still committed to the political system in place at that time. Neither group could be considered a true political party in the modern sense.

After becoming associated with repression of popular discontent in the years after 1815, the Tories underwent a fundamental transformation under the influence of Robert Peel, himself an industrialist rather than a landowner, who in his 1834 "Tamworth Manifesto" outlined a new "Conservative" philosophy of reforming ills while conserving the good.

Though Peel's supporters subsequently split from their colleagues over the issue of free trade (1846), ultimately joining the Whigs to form what would become the Liberal Party, Peel's version of the party's underlying outlook was retained by the remaining Tories, who, led by the Earl of Derby and Benjamin Disraeli, adopted his label of Conservative as the official name of their party.

Canada

In Canada the terms Blue Tory and Red Tory have long been used to describe the two wings of the Conservative and previously the Progressive Conservative (PC) parties. Originally a Blue Tory was one associated with the urban business elite, while a Red Tory was a rural populist from the country's hinterland. Over time, however, the term Blue Tory has come to embody the more ideologically conservative elements in the party, while a Red Tory is a member of the more liberal wing of the party.

The term is also used to designate the pre-Confederation British ruling classes of Upper Canada and Lower Canada.

After the merger of the PC's with the Canadian Alliance in 2003, there was some debate as to whether the "Tory" nickname should survive at the federal level. Although it was widely believed that some Alliance members would take offence to the term, it was officially accepted by the newly-merged party during the 2004 leadership convention. However many Progressive Conservative opponents to the merger take offence to the new party using the term.

American Revolution

The term Tory was used in the American Revolution to describe those who remained loyal to the English government, or Loyalists. Since early in the eighteenth century, Tory had described those upholding the right of the Kings over parliament. During the revolution, particularly after the Declaration of Independence in 1776 this use was extended to cover anyone who remained loyal to the British government. Those Loyalists who settled in Canada, Nova Scotia, or the Bahamas are known as United Empire Loyalists.

Tory was frequently used as an adjective to make otherwise neutral terms pejorative to the revolutionaries. So a Tory militia was a militia unit which took the British side during the Revolutionary War.